As to the Parole Board's recommendation, a guy who confessed to stabbing and killing a woman sixty times while having sex 27 years ago ought to be released from prison.

After confessing to attacking 29-year-old Joanne Tulip in Stamfordham, Northumberland, Steven Ling was given a life sentence in prison in December 1998.

It has been suggested that he be released after his fifth parole hearing.

He is not a convicted sexual offender because a charge of rape was left on file after the initial court hearing, but the Parole Board noted in its decision that "Mr. Ling has always accepted that he raped the victim."

Sadism served as the inspiration for his savage 1997 Christmas Day murder of Ms. Tulip, the sentence court stated in 1998.

Jailing him for life at Newcastle Crown Court, Mr Justice Potts told Ling he "inflicted appalling injuries on (Ms Tulip) while you were having sexual relations with her".

The judge said he was satisfied that Ling was partly motivated by "an aspiration of sadism", telling him he would "never be released so long as it is thought you constitute a danger to women".

Ling, who was 23 at the time of the murder, was handed a minimum term of 20 years which was reduced to 18 years by the High Court.

At a public parole hearing in July this year, which was live-streamed for the public to follow, two psychologists agreed that Ling should be freed from prison and spoke of his enduring "shame" about his "monstrous" past.

Ms Tulip's mother Doreen Soulsby had branded the parole exercise a farce after it was ruled that the killer's evidence could be given in private.

Two psychologists, identified only as A and B, recommended Ling could be released from prison on a risk management plan.

Psychologist A believed the risk Ling posed was "not imminent" and was "manageable in the community", adding: "I believe that now means his risk is at a level where he does not need to be kept in prison anymore."

Psychologist B told the panel: "I believe he meets the test for release and no longer needs to be detained for the protection of the public."

The panel heard that a past risk assessment identified several factors that led to him attacking Ms Tulip which included his preoccupation with sex, sexual interest in indecent exposure, capacity to use force to secure sexual gratification, entitlement towards sex, and a negative attitude towards women.

The assessment also identified issues in Ling's own self-worth and self-esteem.

In 2022, then justice secretary Dominic Raab rejected a request to transfer Ling to a lower security jail. The move overruled a recommendation made by the Parole Board earlier that year.

Mr. Raab made this first intervention of its sort after pledging to personally consider requests to transfer high-risk criminals to jails that are open to the public.

At the time, a representative for the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) affirmed that Mr. Raab had turned down Ling's action "in the interest of public protection".

The MoJ denied a similar plea when Ling's case was heard by the Parole Board in 2020.

According to reports, Ms. Soulsby urged Mr. Raab to put Ling in a closed prison and had the backing of other MPs in doing so. At the time, she told The Telegraph that the news was "such a relief."